The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program that measure an eardrum temperature.
Recently, a type of clinical thermometer that measures a body temperature by measuring radiant heat emitted from an eardrum has been proposed. In such a clinical thermometer, a sensor that measures the radiant heat of the eardrum from an external ear canal is inserted and the radiant heat emitted from the eardrum is measured in a non-contact form. For example, in Japanese Patent No. 2671946, an eardrum temperature measurement apparatus for inserting a sensor unit including a first temperature sensor, which detects infrared rays from an eardrum and generates an output voltage in proportion to a temperature difference between an ambient temperature and an eardrum temperature, and a second temperature sensor, which detects a temperature around the first temperature sensor, into an external ear canal is disclosed. A package in which the sensor unit is housed can be held by a support including silicone rubber having a shape that approximately fills between an external ear canal entrance and a first bent portion of the external ear canal. The package can be positioned inside the external ear canal by inserting the support into the external ear canal.
For stable fixing inside the external ear canal, a shape of an insertion portion of a thermometer that measures radiant heat of the eardrum in the related art, a shape along the external ear canal (for example, Japanese Patent No. 2671946 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-340681) or a cone shape (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-28194) is generally formed. In addition, for measurement of a distance from the eardrum to the temperature sensor, a method using distance measurement by laser irradiation or bouncing of sound waves is general.